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Imperial Characters
= Military Personnel = Royal Family Yoshiro Yoshiro was the Emperor of the Empire of the Rising Sun. The longtime ruler of the Empire, he was cherished as a living god by his people and the military. Emperor Yoshiro was a traditionalist who strictly followed the code of Bushido, the way of the warrior. He fundamentally believed that the Rising Sun's destiny is to rule the entire world, he being Emperor by divine right and that his fate was preordained. Self-disciplined, he changed the Imperial military into one of the most modern ones in the world during the time of his reign together with his son Tatsu, Crown Prince of the Empire. His wife was Tokugawa Kikuko, Princess Takamatsu (Kikuko) of Japan, who he married on 4th February 1930 at the Kokyo Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Shortly after the wedding, Prince and Princess Takamatsu embarked upon a world tour, partly to return the courtesies shown to them by King George V of the United Kingdom. The Prince and Princess returned to Japan in June 1931 and took up residence in Takanawa in Minato, Tokyo. While on the trip, an incident claimed the life of the greatest part of the royal family, including all his siblings. Following this, Takamatsu took over the throne, and in May 1932 he became father. He only had one child, Crown Prince Tatsu. In this time, he changed his name to Yoshiro. He rarely showed emotion and often spoke in a seemingly wise tone. While the Soviets and Allies were fighting each other, Yoshiro was building up a massive high-tech military force bent on world domination, and demanded that both the Allies and Soviets submit to Imperial dominance. He gave up the command of the Imperial military after he realized his belief in predestination was false for uncertain reasons, giving command to Tatsu. He later got over his depression, just in time when the Soviet Union attacked the Imperial palace. He was almost killed by the Soviet commander Davidova as he sported a special King Oni mecha, the Greater King Oni "Scarlet Chrysanthemum", marking his last appearance in public. What then happened is speculative, but the official reason for his death is a spy killing him from behind. In private, he was an avid fan of two things. One was speed-racing, much to the complaint of his son. The other thing was battleships. From 1922 to 1925, he studied at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, which formed his later way heavily. Yoshiro practiced bonsai, the art of growing trees, or woody plants shaped as trees, in containers. He often paid attention to his small tree, pruning it, reducing its roots and the such. Health-wise, he kept fit by training in kenjutsu, and occasionally he would invite an Imperial Warrior that he saw in action, to duel with him by crossing their katana. After Emperor Yoshiro's death, it was up to Emperor Tatsu, and later Kanima, to take care of the tree that Yoshiro left behind. Tatsu See also: Incredible Mobile Fortress Tatsu Emperor Tatsu was a man of vision, like his father. He saw a Japan equal to, even greater than the Western nations of the world. He saw Japan's technology outpace anything the Europeans or Soviets could envision. And he died seeing his inventions decimated by the enemy. His mother dead from complications during childbirth, Tatsu was raised in the mold of his father. Tradition and honor were the laws an emperor lived by, and he was constantly told that one day the reigns of leadership would eventually pass to him. He learned politics, military strategy, and the ways of bushido. He prayed constantly to his mother for guidance, and asked her to watch both himself and his father in their decisions. By age 21, Tatsu had decided to explore the wider world. With his father's blessings, Tatsu set out from Japan to the United Kingdom, fascinated by the rumored technologies the Allies claimed to have. He was greeted with fanfare by the royal family of Britain, the young Queen Elizabeth II greeting her guest with British pomp and flair. The young Tatsu was awed by the British military, the massive lines of regimented soldiers and generals with dozens of medals, hundreds of tanks and a naval fleet that was the envy of the world. He was shown the British government in parliament, but was less impressed with the constant arguing and even jokes that were thrown about. Government behaving so flippantly was a confusion for him, but he kept his tongue; he was a guest in the country. The queen herself took a shine to the quiet and reserved Tatsu, and throughout the trip told him that a leader knows their place in relation to the people; ahead of them in thinking, but always under them in service. Once home, Tatsu vowed to make Japan a similar powerhouse to the British. He drew back all of Japan's students and best minds to help him mold a new military, built off new traditions. There was friction between father and son, the emperor favoring his traditional methods as his son continued to push for ever-increasing modernization. Soon, a compromise was reached; Tatsu could design as many weapons and technologies as he wanted, but his father wanted them to adhere to the philosophies of their ancestors. Tatsu actually found this quite easy to work around. With technologies like beam weapons and nanotechnology, he could easily make a technology into a form and philosophy his father could understand. The beam katana, the Tsunami tank, the revamped Shogun battleship. Each proved to Emperor Yoshiro that the way of war could still exist on the modern battlefield. Though still mindful of tradition, Yoshiro quietly beamed with pride over his son's accomplishments. By 1965, Tatsu had transformed the Empire's armies from technologically infantile and conscripted into a modern force of new samurai. Even as Crown Prince, safely able to coast along on his successes and no longer worry about anything, Tatsu still kept his father's teachings close to his heart. Working closely with daimyos Tenzai and Shirada, his designs improved on their own breakthroughs, and his appointment of shogun Nagama as chief infantry officer of the Empire ensured the Empire's limited soldiers would be the best at their vocation. However, his philosophies on actual war fell on deaf ears. The emperor's psychological warfare shocked the barbarians, yes, but it also hardened their resolve. The Soviets held on to Siberia, as the Allies conducted a campaign of island-hopping in the Pacific. Constantly he tried to convince his father of the folly in their methods, but the Emperor would not listen. Many times the crown prince would confront his father on his methods, leading to fierce arguments at the midpoint of the war. It was after one argument that the Soviet raid on Tokyo began. Quickly the royal family led the defenses, the young crown prince advising his own forces masterfully to aid Tokyo's garrison against the Soviet invaders. Finished for a time, Tatsu returned to find a weeping Shinzo at the entrance to the royal chambers. Bursting through the paper doors, he slowly stepped to his father's prone body, clawed and shot by the Soviets. Despite the damage, the face was clearly that of Emperor Yoshiro. Expelling the doctors and guards, the crown prince broke down. Begging forgiveness from his father, he later stepped out, broken by the loss of his only remaining family. Shaken to his core, Tatsu tried to collect himself for the sake of his people. The war still raged, and on his orders the commanders of the Empire were to show no mercy. Each patch of ground, every mile of water would be paid in blood, as ever increasing fanaticism took hold in the military. Yet the Empire couldn't match the sheer weight of machines and men the Allies and Soviets put out. Eventually, his intelligence alerted him to the incoming Allied fleet. What happened next is more effectively told in the specific battle report, but in the end, the direct line of Emperor Jimmu had broken. Tatsu was laid in state, as phantom ruler as the leaders of Japan met together to decide who would rule them now that the Imperial line was broken. Though dead, Tatsu is still revered among the militarists in the Empire. His contributions to Japan's modernization, the rise of the manufacturing sector, and his decision to heavily pursue military psionics were all seen as securing Japan's future even in defeat. Emperor Tatsu is all but elevated to the position of the war-god Bishamonten, a fate he would have found most humorous. Shogunate Shiro Kamina When Shiro Kamina was seven years old, a bully decided to pick a fight with him. While attempting to avoid his blows, the young boy managed, quite by accident, to cause the older boy to stumble and fall. Even at his young age, Kamina knew it was not honourable to strike his opponent while he was down. It didn't stop him from kicking the bully repeatedly in the ribs and stomping down on his hand, leaving the unfortunate boy with six broken bones. Because that day Kamina came to the most important realisation of his life; that honour was meant to protect the bullies from the bullied. If you didn't want to be bullied, you had to defeat them completely, and let nothing stand in your way. The third child of one of the wealthiest industrial families in Japan with the prestige of Imperial Blood in its veins, Kamina soon found himself in command school, learning to command the forces of the Empire for the coming war. He soon established a strange reputation; he did extremely poorly on his written assignments, never giving the answers his teachers wanted, but in simulation and war games he never lost a battle, and in practice duels he never lost a fight, due to a tempered pragmatism combined with a cynical, almost paranoid streak and an extremely creative tactical mind. He would game the rules of simulation as far as he could to get maximum advantage, and he pursued his objectives with a single-minded determination. Most of his instructors considered him an arrogant and dishonourable fool, who got lucky on the field but was not a proper commander of men, but throughout his time in the academy he was protected by Shinzo Nagama, the famed Korean War veteran, who recognized the importance of his pragmatism on the battlefield. During the war he led the offensive on the Soviet Union and later against the Allied Nations, joining battle after battle, determined to destroy his enemies completely. This attitude was one of the things that saved the Empire from destruction by the combined efforts of the Soviets and Alllies, and gained the Empire an honourable surrender. After the war was over and the only two living members of the Imperial family, Emperor Yoshiro and Crown Prince Tatsu, had died in respectable battles the way they wanted to, as warriors, it was among the remaining Shogun to decide who would take the place as the new Emperor. The extended family of the Emperor declined the position, citing a belief that one more suited to politics than they should take the throne. The politically savvy Shogun Takara Sato rejected the position of ruler outright, as it was her opinion it might bring a negative reaction among the public should a woman suddenly take over the throne. The oldest and wisest Shogun, Shinzo Nagama, had offered his place to a younger generation several times, but Kamina convinced him to stay as an advisor, and of them; Kamina was the one who had the strongest direct heritage from the house of Yamato thanks to direct patrilineal descent from the Taisho Emperor through a concubine whose son would marry into his family. Thus, it was for Kamina to take the throne and bring the Empire forward in these grim times. After his ascension to the throne Kamina immediately pushed through several reforms, the most controversial being the end to the traditional discrimination of people with foreign ancestors as well as giving them equal status within the Empire. When the Traditionalists tried to use this as an excuse to knock Kamina off the throne, Kamina's popularity with the Japanese people as well as unexpected support from the Militants was enough to get the Traditionalists to back off for now, despite the fact that doing something like that would have been a political death sentence just a few years ago. In private, Emperor Kamina is known to tinker with anything that sparks his immediate interest from the mechanical to the scientific. Kamina would carefully analyse anything and figure a way to turn it to the Empire's advantage, earning him the nickname "The Scholar" by the Shogunate. Kenji Tenzai The late imperial commander known as Kenji Tenzai was a member of the Empire's famed Tenzai family. His family was partially responsible for the introduction of mecha units to the Empire's army. He knew each and every model's strengths and weaknesses, and he exploited that knowledge during his days as a Mecha Tengu driver. His unparalleled skill caught the eyes of crown prince Tatsu, who offered Kenji military training, and the position as the Empire's mecha division leader; He accepted. He led the assault on Leningrad, and was present at the battle of Tokyo. He died in that battle, due to his command Mecha sustaining too much damage; he continued on foot, and was run over by an allied mirage tank. Shinzo Nagama Shinzo Nagama is one of the shrinking number of traditionalists left in power in Japan. It is his guidance that allows Emperor Kamina to navigate the finer points of Imperial nobility and the functions of the Empire's ruling class, and his family's own power that has kept power-hungry families of nobles from seizing power by force or guile. Shinzo was raised in the northern parts of Japan, living an isolated life and dedicating his body and mind to the study of bushido, being groomed to one day take the reigns of his family and clan from his father. He gained a deep understanding of the duties of the leaders of the Empire. His place was to lead the people, to be sure of his decisions and know that the people would be better for following these orders. Even as the militarists gained power, he found a strange comfort in their beliefs. While their war was not the personal, visceral combat promised by the way of war, there was still opportunity for great heroism. If only the warrior knew when to seize it. The Second World War was a valuable yet frightening insight into the abilities of the gaijin; Soviet tanks as tall as houses, or shock troopers wielding the very power of Susanoo in their hands. The Allied nanban were just as worrying. The ability to bypass time? Their rule of the waves, almost unopposed? Even in his young age Shinzo was worried about the future of his nation. It was with comfort that the crown prince came back to his home with new ideas. With new technology, bushido could be viable on the modern battlefield. Shinzo was charged with the training of the Imperial Infantry Command, and decided on forcing the men to begin with the basics. The new generation of warriors trained as Shinzo had; they swung swords at reed mats as thick as bone. They meditated to reach ever greater understandings as to why they needed to fight as they did. There was little issue with the men using their pulse rifles; the samurai of old used bows as well as swords. Anyone could simply fire a rifle. Under Shinzo's direction, the Empire's warriors would kill with them. Unfortunately, the Empire's decisions weren't enough. Beaten back and forced to capitulate, Shinzo was one of the few surviving members of the Imperial Shogunate by the end of the war. Desperate for advice and vital allies, now-Emperor Kamina asked that Shinzo, with his knowledge of the Empire's clan leadership serve as his right hand. Shinzo accepted, but could do little to temper the new emperor's thirst for change. Warnings fell on deaf ears, but Shinzo accepted the fact that the emperor could not apologize for not heeding his words. A living god does not apologize. Now, Shinzo guides the traditionalists and Imperial clans under his guidance. They chafe at the Allies trying to impose control, and still wish to return to the days when foreigners were expelled and barred from entry. Privately, Shinzo agrees with their views on the Allies and their interference in Japanese life, but will never publicly disobey the Emperor's will. His current official duties instead focus on the discovery of the assassins that killed the empress, which so far has resulted in dozens of dead ends and stalled leads. He has also been charged with acting as the Empire's interface with Allied representatives, his calm veneer hiding his sharp wit and skilled political manipulations. Though knowing full well it is a pipe dream, Shinzo still dreams of once again leading his own forces on the battlefield. Like his samurai ancestors, he feels his talents are wasted simply acting as what he sees as a government functionary. He continues to practice his kendo daily, and practices his calligraphy as Emperor Yoshiro had. He meditates on his failings, and waits. Naomi Shirada Born in 1918, just at the end of WW1, Naomi Shirada would assume a position that she was (planned) to assume even beforehand her birth. Her father Tokuzo Shirada was the founder of Shirada Shipworks which he created in 1880 and at that time began production of steam-freighters. Even before the Shirada clan had a long history in shipbuilding. Tokuzo was one of the first to realize the chances the western world offered for his buisiness. Shirada Shipworks soon became one of the biggest company in all of Japan. At the age of 48, Katsuya Shirada became pregnant, invoking hope in Tokuzo to finally have a direct hire for his legacy. To give this some ceremonial emphesize, he and his wife moved to the "Shirada" the prototype of the Shirada Shogun Battleships, in the last month of her pregnancy. Then on October the 9th, the time had come and the birth pangs began. Naomi´s birth was a difficult one, it took 8 hours. But finally Tokuzo held her in his arms, and the first that he did was to take the girls right hand, tip it to the small rest of umbilical cord on her tummy and push it to a very special paper making a small hand-print composed of the blood of mother and child. He returned the child to the proud mother, while the doctors tried to stop the bleeding. At the same time the last step was taken. Tokuzo cut his left thumb and signed under the hand-print with his blood. So it was set that Naomi would own Shirada Shipworks when she would reach the age of 18. Or so it was planned. Then his brother asked him why in the world would he give his enterprise to a woman. Tokuzo turned around and mindlessly stared at the small form covered in white sheets. "A daughter!" was all that he thought, over and over, while the routinous movements of the doctors became increasingly hectic. They just could not stop the bleeding. Katsuya still holding young Naomi became delirious, and then passed out completely. At 6p.m. she had perished smiling. Tokuzo comitted seppuku in the morning of the next day, at sunrise. The now orphaned child was adopted by her uncle, who also took possession of the company. He never intended to return it to Naomi, once she reached the right age, though. Instead she would be be raised to marry another industrialists son, the old papers thrown away. But Naomi was not at all behaving as she should. At the age of four, she began to show large interest in her fathers work and would occasionally sneak out at night to wander through the docks of Shirada Shipworks. Then at the age of 14 after a particular hefty arguement with her uncle, she ran off and found a new home with a far relative she knew as a Naginata cruiser captain, but actually was an ex-Shinobi. He taught her about naval warfare and ship design, as well as giving her lessons in fighting with a Katana. Then at the age of 18 he took her with him on a coast patrol. When they were alone standing at the bow he told her what happened at her birth and showed her the paper that was signed in blood. He had stolen it before it could have been destroyed. He took a Wakizashi with an artfully crafted hilt and an imperial emblem on the scabbard from his uniform and held it in front of her. "Do you love your country?","Yes.","And do you trust in the emperor to wisely guide us to our destiny, through trouble and through chaos?" "...Yes, yes I do.", "And now most importantly, answer me: Do you want to honor your father by assuming the position he intended for you and that rightfully belongs to you? To serve the emperor and your country?","Yes, I want to, with all my heart and soul!","This is the blade your father used for seppuku, swear on it to honor his memories or use it to redeem your debt!", she put her hand on the blade and swore. The next day a furious Naomi stormed into the main office of Shirada Shipworks and loudly challenged her uncle for a duel while she held the paper over her head heralding her rightful ownership to everyone in sight. The challenged quickly appeared and asked what was the meaning of this lunacy was. Then he saw the paper and paled. Next thing he did was to tell his personal secretary to get him his katana and two other to draw a chalk circle on the main plaza. "We won´t need secondaries." Was the last she said when they faced each other. Then her uncle charged, thinking her helpless with her small Wakizashi, she dived under his blow and struck the blade out of his hand. She put the tip of her blade to his throat and told him to officially give her back her heritage, in front off the assembeled workers. Such humiliation he could not take and demanded her to end it. She handed him her wakizashi, "You know what to do!" and picked up the katana. He thrust the blade into his abdomen without so much as a grunt, then Naomi beheaded him in one clean stroke. Naomi took over Shirada Shipworks and once again made it a synonym for outstanding naval crafts. Had her uncle just left the work to his engineer team, Naomi actually talked with a lot of admirals and flotilla captains and personally designed vessels for their specific needs. Later when nanotechnology became broadly available, she also made a ship-on-demand service. A commander called her to design them a ship after their needs, she did so and transmitted the blueprints directly to his field engineers who could then begin production within minutes. In the beginning of WWIII Yoshiro needed a supreme commander for the imperial navy as the old one resinged. His five most decorated admirals told him that no one in all of Japan knew more about ships and naval warfare than Naomi Shirada. So he officially made her his head of Navy and bestowed her the title of shogun. Since then she countlessly proved her incredible capabilities at naval operations. Her first actual battle was a confrontation between her transfer group, consisting of a factory-fresh Shogun and a small escort of five Cruisers, and a flottilla of Stingrays and Akulas outnumbering them 5:1. At that time Russia was mostly under imperial control, and most remaining soviet naval forces were scattered. In this particular case a middle-ranking officer had unified a number of coast guard units, which he commanded from his Wolf-Pack. In the short conversation immidiately before the fight began, this very officer called her a sea-witch, which drove her quite mad. The signal was traced back to the furthermost positioned Akula, but instead of doing the obvious, she set the priority to the central submarine. She quickly changed to one of the Naginatas with the Shogun shooting a path through the Stingrays for her. Then she dropped a depth charge right on top of the sub disabling the torpedo tubes and forcing it to surface. The boarding team jumped on deck as soon as it did holding a large demolition charge in front of the periscope. Two Stingrays tried to come to aid, but were blasted away by carefully aimed torpedos before they could even come near. After that the flottilla dissipated, retreating to fight another day. Yet Naomi had been right, attacking the leading submarine would have been exactly what the soviet captain wanted. The one in the middle though had been his real command ship. The captain was now to the mercy of Naomi, who was not exactly mercyful: She forced him to undress and then bound him in place in the torpedo tube of the Naginata. Then she ordered to continue on their way. The poor captain was drenched as the craft sped ahead at 26 knots straight. Naomi stood just above him listening to his litanies. She would not free him from his miserable situation, before he had appologized to her a thousend times in proper japanese. He actually survived the severe pneumonia that followed. Naomi had, probably due to her childhood, always had a rather difficult relation to men. This did not stop her from caring for her men, just that she did not care for their persons, but instead saw the benefit, of them not dying, for japan. However there was one exception of her rule:Shiro Kamina. Shiro Kamina was one of the commanders she made custom schematics for. Just that he had not been a commander most of the time they discussed ship design. Actually it had been part of his mind experiments, where he took training simulations and then discuss about the optimal ship for completing the objectives. Those schematics were however not wasted, Kamina used nearly all of them, mostly to suprise his opponents with the yet unseen ships. One of the designs later became the Wave Tanto/Jet Tanto, he effectively tested the prototypes. Naomi most likely appreciated Kamina´s cynical humor, the only time she ever smirked was around Kamina. Last but not least, Kamina was the last imperial commander to see her. In the final strategic conference before the fateful Battle of the Bering Strait, Naomi wanted to talk to him alone about something. The resulting talk took two hours and afterwards Naomi behaved somehow different. Not exactly more friendly, but less grim. This did however not have much effects as she should die just 16 hours later in service to her country. After most of the smaller vessels had been destroyed and the soviets were about to escape with the data, Naomi personally saw to completing the objective. In a frontal charge of all eight Shogun battleships, she had her flagship directly ramming into the Kiev, where Adrik Mikhailov had been beginning to examine the database. Naomi took charge of the following boarding operation and succeeded in making her way to the bridge. She destroyed the database with a well aimed Beam-Katana blow in a recless manouver that costed her live. The admiral himself blew out her chest with the complete clip of his KAR-90. Her dead-man-switched Type 00s consumed her the soviet commander and the bridge in a flash of superheated plastic. A symbolic funeral ceremony was held the next day followed by a country wide memorial hour to honor her final sacrifice. Takara Sato Daimyo Sato was born the sole child of her family, her father saddened by his lack of a son to carry on his family's name but heartened when he saw his daughter finding her way constantly to the ancient armor worn by her ancestors in combat. Consulting his family's advisors, he discovered she had a destiny to fulfill; a path as a leader of warrior women. Confused but heartened by the certainty of the destiny, Takara's father had her learn with the sword, the bow, and the horse. By her fifteenth birthday, she had learned the bow, mastered the sword, and tamed each horse given to her. Her father smiled with pride, but knew no law letting women serve under the banner of the Empire. He saw only a future of her marrying, being forced to subdue her destiny in exchange for her own sake in society. Then the call for women was announced by Prince Tatsu on his return from studying abroad. Destiny was indeed going to come true. The training of the Rocket Angels is something Sato will not speak of. The end result was that she led them. She was their cadet commander, and now was their leader in war. She led the first assaults on the Soviets with her classmates, and eventually was transferred to aid the Eastern Fleet in the defense of Japan's territories. It was during this time that she became friends with Adm. Shirada. The two were an odd match; Shirada born aboard a mighty battleship, Sato molded into a warrior by time. Yet the pair was soon a common sight whenever they could secure leave. The calm and thoughtful Shirada was the perfect foil to the often brash and hot-tempered Sato. The battle of the Bering Strait was a huge personal blow to Sato. Though a victory for the Empire, the death of Naomi Shirada hit her the hardest. Gone was her role model on how to be a commander. The losses to both the Soviets and Allies compounded her grief. She felt responsible for not protecting the Emperor better (Even being nearly half-a-world away), and during the Second Battle of Tokyo not being able to save the Empire from total defeat. Now, Sato waits. She has tried to rebuild the Rocket Angels after the heavy losses they took during the war. She has fully bought in to the idea that Yuriko Omega is a goddess in human form, and that soon she will raise a new army against the foreign oppressors. But for now, Sato trains her new charges in the same secrecy she had been. Omega Program Shinji Shimada Shinji Shimada became an expert in psionics not by choice, but by what many considered sheer blind luck. Raised into a family of doctors, Shinji was studying medicine as one of the few students the Empire decided to send abroad. While in Harvard studying psychology, he witnessed a performance by a nameless street illusionist. To many of the other students, the man was a laugh, a temporary diversion from their schoolwork they could watch idly. To a young Shinji, it was amazing. He watched as the man bent spoons without pressure, boiled eggs with his eyes, made small books levitate without touching them. Coming back to Japan, he wanted to explore the boundaries of human thought. On his return, he came before his doctoral review at Tokyo Imperial University, and was immediately brought before the academic board for his thesis; The Abilities of Latent Human Psionics and the Human Mind. The regents were in an uproar, calling out Shimada for ridiculous notions. How dare he, they said, bring before their honored institution a work about frivolities and parlor tricks. Shimada defended his work deftly, arguing that the great warriors of the myths of Japan possessed abilities far beyond those of mortal men. The story of Benkei, who stood standing long enough for the escape of his allies even in death. He argued that Momotarō was not a boy who discovered talking animals (As that would just be absurd), but rather he could talk to animals in a way both understood. The tales of Kintarō were no mere legends out of fact; rather the legends were made to explain the reality. Perhaps he touched on the men's proud feelings towards their nation. Maybe Shiro himself was a latent psychic. Whichever case, the board agreed to allowed his doctoral thesis, and now-Dr. Shinji Shimada would show the world his truths. Finding research space was difficult; no "respectable" hospital or psychiatric ward would let Shimada in the door, much less grant him an interview. Only when intelligence reached the Empire of the Soviet Union's "psychic warriors" did the shogunate decide that their own capabilities needed to be brought to match. Finding Shimada still trying to crack the secrets of unlocking man's psionic potential, they offered him research space, and more importantly, subjects. They set aside the Shiro Sanitarium as his personal research site. The buildings were remodeled into a modern psychiatric facility, the security tightened heavily. All patients not suffering from more extreme psychoses were sent to other institutions. Shinji wanted only those closest to breaking the barriers of human ability. He took the schizophrenics off their medications. He personally interviewed the sociopaths and asked about their views on reality. Many junior researchers were seriously injured or had to undergo their own psychological counseling. Shiro felt his research getting closer, but kept hitting roadblocks. Until Yuriko. The child was everything Shinji had dreamed of. He'd theorized that children might show abilities before adults, and he was right. Unshackled by "knowing" she could never do such things, Shinji ordered her taken from her village and put into the sanitarium. The unspeakable experiments he subjected her to can never be repeated, but the results are clear for all to see. Despite Yuriko's continued escape attempts, Shimada pushed his studies forward. Each time he justified his actions with the knowledge that Yuriko was the next step forward for mankind. In her time at the sanitarium dozens of patients woke their latent abilities, and footage of Yuriko in Japanese territory sparked off waves of awakenings in the population. Sadly for Shinji, the reality of his treatment of Yuriko quickly caught up with him. At the war's end, with the Allies steaming towards Tokyo, Shimada's research was interrupted by Yuriko breaking into the facility instead of running out. Knowing the end was near, he tried to stall her as long as he could, but in vain. Finally locating his own personal lab, Yuriko put Shimada through the same tortures she had undergone. Every needle puncture, every burn, every surgery. His last conscious thought was to scream out, on experiencing what he'd always sought, "I have seen the goddess!" Following his death, what rubble was left of the sanitarium was demolished by the Allies. The remaining patients were transferred to the Greenland cryo-prison, more for the safety of the general population as well as the patients. The remains of Shinji Shimada could not be found for proper burial. The only trace he had been in the facility at all were his glasses, cracked and broken. Izumi Other Officers Suki Toyama For more than a century, the Toyama family had served the Emperor, ever since the 1880s, when Mitsuru Toyama, the third son of an obscure samurai family, founded the Genyosha, the Dark Ocean Society, an ultranationalist secret society whose tenets were to revere the Emperor, love the nation, and defend the people's rights. Dark Ocean members would act as bodyguards for government officials, strong-arm 'persuaders' for political bosses, and as skilled labourers in legitimate jobs. The society as a whole came to exert great influence in the officer corps and government bureaucracy. Dark Ocean graduates, trained in martial arts, foreign languages, and spying techniques, were sent abroad to China, Manchuria, and Korea, where they, and other societies of their ilk, would form the basis of the sophisticated Japanese intelligence network created prior to World War 2. In this way, it would not be inaccurate to say that information has been the business of the Toyama family for generations. Today, the Toyama family stand in a much more openly acknowledged and socially accepted light, but they never forgot their ancestors, nor the deeds with which those ancestors earned them the exalted position which they now occupy. In her crib, Suki was chosen for the role of administrator and scribe when she reached for a pen out of many objects presented to her. For the next 25 years of her life she would be trained (or more cynically, molded) into the the tool the Emperor would need her to be. She was constantly bombarded by information so her mind would grow to hold it, while she was being taught calligraphy before she could speak to make her mind and hand as one. The Toyama family kept with the times, and she was taught how to operate a radio completely, even though it would be obsolete by the time she was an adult. She quickly grasped how to make best use of the frequencies, and even made her own ham radio in her (very brief) spare time. It is theorized that Tokyo Rose, the little girl who during WWII cheered the Allies on over various frequencies, was in fact her. Unfortunately, throughout her life, Suki had problems which angered her parents. Quite simply, she wasn't taking her duties seriously. Her formal written reports about each day, detailed down to every five minutes, were often handed in with butterflies and ponies drawn on the margins. She would often sneak off when she was supposed to be reading field reports of proper fuel tank filling methods, and instead paint her face white and pretend to be a geisha. When she left the family compound for the first time in her life to pet a cat she saw, her parents were incensed for her lack of obedience. She was banished from her rightful place, and sent into the military instead. Needless to say, her abilities made her head and shoulders above any other officer involved in intelligence, and she was handpicked to be the intelligence officer for the Shogunate. There remained one barrier, however. Many in the military argued that an AI could do the job better, that computers have replaced the human mind in such positions. To prove it, Suki was pitted against against one of the leading AIs in the field in a battery of tests. A foreigner, one Alan Turing, was brought in to decide, free of bias, who was superior in a wholly blind test. After several days, Turing decided on the results, and concluded that Contestant 2 was the superior, especially when Contestant 2 asked how Arnold Murray was doing, despite not having been informed of her tester's identity. Suki was seen to giggle at being told this. Suki was paired up with Shogun Kamina, and the two grew a bond over the war, stronger than any other intelligence officers. Indeed, by the war's end they admitted their love to each other, and when he ascended to the throne, he kept his promise and took her as his Empress. By all accounts, she was a charming, graceful empress, but things out of control were about to change all of it. Shortly after several of Kamina's reforms, three Imperial Warriors approached the royal couple on their thrones in the Imperial Palace (how they entered is unknown). They bowed respectfully, and calmly said that the Emperor had forsaken his honour. Before Kamina could respond, they quickly drew shurikens and threw them at the Emperor. One missed and only hit the Chrysanthemum Throne, while the other was deflected in midair by Kamina himself. Only after the Tsukumogami guarding Kamina, and Kamina himself, had quickly killed the assassins, did they discover the third one embedded in Suki's throat. The whole nation mourned yet another royal member dead in as many years. Condolences were issued from many nations, and thousands attended her funeral. However, a great many high ranking people invited, including many Prefecture Chijis and military officials, refused to attend, leaving some to think they approved of the action. Regardless, one of the largest police actions in history followed as the assassination conspiracy was investigated. Unfortunately, every trail was cold and to this day no one knows who ordered the assassination, but many fingers point to those angered by Kamina's attempts to reform the Empire. Category:Characters Category:Lore